My Body, My Country

My body is my first home, country and temple. It has an uncanny way of telling me what's going on in my mind and soul. I'm finally recovering from an onslaught of different kinds of angry, sore blisters and rashes on different parts of my body. In the space of three weeks I've had a nasty cold sore on my mouth, poison oak on my left arm, and poison ivy on my left leg.

I've been subject to cold sores all my life, so I wasn't too alarmed when a cold sore developed on my mouth. But it was quickly followed by poison oak rash I'd contracted a week and a half earlier suddenly flaring up again. A couple of days after the poison oak resurfaced, I developed a case of poison ivy. I've been walking in the same woods and lake district all my life and have never been a victim of these pernicious plants. Then all of a sudden I'm attacked twice in three weeks.
The blisters on my mouth, arm and leg are subsiding now, but I still have to be careful not to aggravate them. And calm. I must be calm, because I sure haven't been. In fact, I've been very angry and upset about certain conditions in my life and trying rather unsuccessfully to keep my anger to myself. I haven't fooled anybody with my feeble attempts at appearing to be okay - least of all my body, my self.

The body knows and the body talks. Lately it's been shouting at me, forcing me to listen. I heard it loud and clear (impossible not to), but I needed to listen to what it was saying. My body's been expressing what I've been feeling but trying to ignore. I should have been expressing my negative emotions in creative, constructive ways, instead of waiting until I couldn't suppress them anymore. So that's what I'm doing right here and now.
The mandate for this little web of mine is to be positive and cheerful and write about my metaphysical interpretations of everything I experience. Okay, so this particular yarn I'm weaving into my web isn't all that light and cheerful, but it's a good lesson in the body/mind connection. Although I've learned it the hard way, it's ultimately a good thing.
I've also observed that I sometimes reflect what's going on outside of me, and not just within me. In my part of the world we've just recently been through "interesting times," the kind referred to in the ancient Chinese curse - May you live in interesting times. I watched the shenanigans with what I thought was an objective, dispassionate eye, but I was actually very angry with my fellow human beings, and despaired for how stupid we can be. It wasn't the first time I noticed a correlation between my personal life and the world around me. Materialists scoff at this notion. But you know where I stand on that.
I'm writing these words to help me finish healing from the anger that has manifested on my body. It's a good day for it. It's July 1st. The first day of the month and the rest of my life. As this day goes, so do I. So I'm expressing myself creatively, and then going out into the world with cheerful greetings to friends and strangers alike to observe this special day in the country I call home. (I've tried to be "universal" and non-specific in my blurbs, but I know it's rather obvious where I live. Whatever. It's fun to keep up the charade.)
So there it is. For just today and all the moments it contains, I'm doing what I can to heal, move forward, and set the tone for the rest of my life. Blessed be.
- G.P.